Party Time for Murder!

Celebrate with the New York/Tri-State Sisters in Crime chapter as we launch our anthology MURDER NEW YORK STYLE at Partners & Crime Thursday November 1 from 7-9 pm.

The 21 stories in the anthology are by our members: Cynthia Baxter, Meredith Cole, Fran Bannigan Cox, Peggy Ehrhart, Erica Harth, Marianna Heusler, Nan Higginson, Randy Kandel, Ronnie Klaskin, M.E. Kemp, Chelle Martin, Margaret Mendel, Dorothy Mortman, Terrie Moran, Anita Page, R.M. Peluso, Triss Stein, Deirdre Verne, Pearl Wolf, Elizabeth Zelvin, and Lina Zeldovich.

Partners & Crime is in Greenwich Village at 44 Greenwich Avenue (corner of Charles), Phone: (212) 243-0440.

Why Do You Surf?

A while back I wrote a bit about why people would want to set up author sites and what both authors and readers could expect from them. Recently, I ran across this post over at Lit Soup, in which Jenny Rappaport takes on some readers who have gotten on her case about the fact that she hasn't been posting about "agency issues." In other words, people were only reading her blog in order to get information that might better their chances of gaining representation.

Well, okay. I'm a big proponent of research, as I've probably said here a time or two. And I think agents who are willing to take the time to blog deserve a lot of credit. But that's not the only reason I read their blogs. There are far too many of them out there to read them all, even if I wanted to! No, I read them for the same reason I read anything--they interest me.

Now, I don't read all the posts on any blog (except, of course, the ones I post on), which is why I have a feed reader. (If you don't know about feed readers, I have some information on them at the bottom of this post.) But it would never occur to me to take a writer to task for not writing what I want to read. If I don't want to read something, I just...don't.

And even though I have an agent now, I still read Jenny's blog. And Kristin Nelson's. And Nathan Bransford's. And, of course, the BookEnds blog. Not because I am desperate for advice, but because I am interested in their views on both the business and life in general. I skip a lot. Right now, for example, Nathan Bransford is posting on "The Largely Indispensable First Paragraph Challenge," and Kristin Nelson is running a blog pitch workshop. Since those don't thrill me, and, being honest, they are no longer of use, I don't read them

So, yeah, some of what I used to read I read for research. But I didn't "tune in" just for help.

And then there are the author blogs. Some of the mystery writers I love keep blogs I don't love. And, believe it or not, some mystery authors whose fiction I don't like at all write blogs to which I am completely addicted. My personal blog has been obsessed--for weeks now--with the plague of hives. I don't expect most people to be interested in that at all. (If you are interested, all the easy stuff has been ruled out and we are now on to new and fancy doctors with multi-syllabic titles.) I am of two minds about that blog. One day I am pretty sure I'm going to close it, the next I think I'll keep it around. One of these days, I'll make up what little mind I have!

What about you? Do you read any blogs specifically for research? Do you read blogs where you skip a lot of posts? Do you read some because it's like watching a car wreck--you don't want to, but you can't seem to look away? (Sometimes, the query competitions are like that for me; I don't want to read the horrid things, but I just can't help myself.)

What makes you want to read a blog? What keeps you there once you run across it? Do you want to know your favorite author's political stances, or should that be kept out of things? Do you want to know if their kid has measles, or should that stay off the web?

And you, do you want your readers to know that you broke your leg in an embarrassing escalator incident last week, or would you prefer to appear the consummate professional, only posting on things having to do with writing?

C'mon, tell! I want to read your comments!

There's Still Time

Over at the Crime Time Café Steven Torres is giving away copies of his noir stand alone novel The Concrete Maze. Steven’s latest post is entitled There’s Still Time Steven tells us there is still time to get a free copy by contacting him through his website.

Since I’ve already ordered Steven’s book from Amazon, I’ll just steal his blog post title. There’s Still Time.

When it comes to writing, I feel as though I came very late to the dance. I am rushing into the ballroom to catch the last waltz. Got to do this. Got to learn that. This week I got a silly little cold that knocked me for a loop and I didn’t keep to my self imposed schedule.

This morning my good friend, CiCi, with whom I’ve share a message board for many years, told us all to start the day with deep breaths. Inhale to a count of six. Hold for three. Exhale for a count of six. I followed her directions and did the deep breathing routine three times. I cleared my head and saw time stretched out before me.

Time to write. Time to read. Time to revise. Time to learn more about the craft of writing. Time to walk and ponder. Time to explore great writing blogs. Time to learn more about the business of writing. Time for family and friends. Time to breathe.

Today I’m going to stop rushing and start using my time. Thanks CiCi.

Terrie

Ah, The Sweet Smell Of Rejection

Well, just in case I might be getting a swelled head over finding an agent (to match the various swelling hives everywhere else), today the first of the few houses she'd submitted the work to rejected it. It was a nice rejection, but a rejection nonetheless. Still, there are more places we have yet to hear from, and more to submit to after that.

Whee!

I am a Professional Writer, Therefore I Don't

Lois has been digging up resources to give your Muse the hotfoot. That's very useful, but I've got nothing to add there, because my main expertise is in evasion- as Terrie also commented. Still, as good as I've become, apparently, we can all still learn from the pros.

Of course, we proudly boast published, professional Women of Mystery here, however I'm not aware whether any of us work in arenas where we'd be dues-payers of the Writers Guild of America. The WGA currently faces a potential strike and, as a result, we all face lots of "reality" TV shows (also scripted, but not credited or paid as such) and truncated seasons of our favorite dramas and comedies.

I don't claim to have a well-informed position on the details of the dispute, only the rosiest, most selfish hope that further negotiations will leave all involved with satisfied grins and my favorite shows with plenty of fresh episodes. I require well-told stories in other mediums to distract from the wrecks of my own. What about my needs, people?

Rob Long is such a professional Left Coast writer. In this L.A.Times article, he tackles the challenge of "not writing" if the strike is called. The odd situation, as he describes it, made me wonder if a chef's strike were called, could they cook themselves dinner? His musings are not only funny, but easy to understand for any writer as he examines some of the ways in which this remains a strangely-defined and practiced occupation. (snips mine):

...As a professional writer, I've always been pretty good at not writing. Not writing, in fact, is one of my chief skills. I can not write anywhere -- on a plane, in a coffee shop, in my office -- and I often feel that a day spent without not writing is a day wasted. I even keep a notebook by the side of the bed, in case I wake up with an idea at 3 in the morning and don't want to write it down in case I don't forget it...

When I think of writing, that's pretty much what comes to mind: sitting around, drinking a pumpkin latte and checking my e-mail every seven seconds. And my question is, if there's a strike, am I still allowed to do that?...

When the Muse Misfires...

The women of mystery seem to have little problem gluing butt to chair and setting pen to paper. However I, for one, admit to requiring the occasional nudge in an interesting new direction. Sometimes I get lazy and resist going deep. Or I lose my sense of humor and find myself incapable of composing amusing posts or the witty dialogue that would so enhance my novel.

Lately I’ve had fun with some iGoogle gadgets for writers. Here’s one from Mood Room Press, called Writer’s Idea Bank. It generates a couple of sentences of prose imagery to inspire plot, setting, and a storyline. If you’re not delighted with the suggestion presented, just hit refresh for another. (I only wish that Chinese fortune cookies were as versatile!)

Here’s the suggestion that Writer’s Idea Bank has currently displayed on my iGoogle page:

“Rewrite the story of Noah’s Arc with a child on a leash. Now imagine this...the bored schoolgirls are clapping, while a man in the shadows loads a rifle.”

I don’t know about you, but I envision a pair of adolescents – a boy and a girl with diverse gene pools – being dragged at the end of a rope onto a spaceship by aliens. The man in the shadows loading a rifle is no doubt a dad, desperate to bring those aliens to their knees. The bored schoolgirls, however, stump me a little. I can see them in pleated skirts perched side-by-side on the rail (do spaceships have rails?) kicking their knee-high and penny-loafer clad heels. I wonder, however, why they’re bored under such circumstances, and clapping. Perhaps they’ve been brainwashed and now cater to the whims of kidnapping aliens?

Ready for another? Here goes:

“Two French girls arrive in Greece with a pot of clover honey. The sky drizzles a cold grey rain; a baron walks in with a knife, and the thief disappears in the shadows.”

Seems to me the folks at Mood Room Press are either fellow crime writers or purveyors of erotica. (Just joking...I’m well aware that what’s at work here is some demonic artificial intelligence.)

So...on a dark and stormy night, a baron holds a knife over two nubile French maidens shipped as slaves to a remote Greek isle. The girls have been forced, presumably by the perverse and diabolical baron, to enhance their charms with a liberal dousing of honey. We hope against hope that the thief in the shadows will come quickly to their rescue. But in a cunning plot twist, the young baron proves more gallant than randy. Fending off the thief, who in fact is a trader in the white-slave market, the baron wields his blade, slicing the rope that binds the girls’ wrists, and frees them forthwith. They are grateful....

Enough. Enough. Here’s one better in the writer’s block department. A friend just sent me the name of a book review called “Burning Ambition: What to do about those who write better than you.” The book itself? “Brock Clarke’s “An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England.”

I dare you to come up with a better solution for those moments when the muse turns a deaf ear!

-Lois

What's With Your Shorts?

Image via Crazy for Bargains.

Are your shorts an airless, joyless place

or

a wild, grab 'em by the curlies emotional assault?

I'm reading a bunch from Ellery Queen currently and thinking about using this kind of set-up for my way-out fantasy project. As I'm conceiving it today, some of my content will happen in comic books which typically unspool in serial, some of it as online threads like bogus message boards and wikis (tx, Lois), and some in text format, scene arcs within novellas under a single cover. And, as two of our WOM are about to release their carefully-cut gems into the world- see splashy cover to the right- it seems like a good time to bandy re: the health and well-being of the short story.

As you may have noticed by now, I'm a real Ernestine, with nary an original thought but cadging everything I know from overheard conversations. On this topic, I was referred around to a relevant article I should've noticed before by the Grumpy Old Bookman. The GOB also has more on this topic he's been noticing, and I find him often prescient and always entertaining.

On to the shorts: Stephen King recently edited The Best American Short Stories 2007, and being a glutton, was not content with merely digesting the piles forwarded to him, and scrounged for truffles in the lowest, dankest, darkest 12 inches of the bookstore. There, he took the pulse of the form. Alive? Yes. And well? Let him break it to you.

For myself, I know that, so far, I'm no darned good at understanding what short story editors want, but I do enjoy reading them, and many have made an impact on me that an extended telling might've dulled into forgetfulness.

Do you write or read them? Do you buy them for more than simple marketing tips? What's your thinking about the state of your shorts?

To Meme or Not To Meme

Okay, so now that we have all had a chance to bask in the reflected glow of Laura’s wonderful news, it’s time to move on to still another thing that I don’t understand about the blogosphere.

Memes. What are they? Well according to the American Heritage Dictionary a meme is “a unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another.” Yeah? So? Apparently people wander from blog to blog and “tag” other bloggers, teasing those bloggers to answer a series of questions as a way for us all to get to know each other a little better. Click here to learn more.

I waited. I fretted. I considered myself to be unpopular, but finally after all these many months, I have been memed. Thank you Helen Shearer, Canadian writer of a novel in progress, who regularly blogs at the Hellcat Chronicles. Click here.
According to Helen’s meme I have to answer four questions, so here I go:

What is the total number of books I own? I try to keep the number down because books could easily overrun my smallish living space. I share a lot with other readers. I am a frequent library user and I make regular donations to Reader to Reader, a not for profit that supports libraries in financially depressed neighborhoods all over America. Click here. You can help. They take cash donations as well as books. (Hint. Hint.)

What is the last book I read? The anthology Bronx Noir. Steven Torres, author of the Precinct Puerto Rico series as well as the rough, tough stand alone, The Concrete Maze, was kind enough to send me a copy in response to a contest of sorts that he had on his blog, The Crime Time Café. Click here. Basically, he offered a copy of the book and I (waving wildly to get his attention) explained why I should be the grateful recipient. He knew better than to deny an old Bronx girl!! Steven's story in the anthology is called "Early Fall" and it will blow your socks off.

What is the last book I bought? The anthology, Dangerous Women, edited by Michael Connelly. Since I am on a short story kick (writing as well as reading) I have been searching for mystery anthologies and came across this one a couple of weeks ago.

Lastly I had to name five books that are meaningful to me:

Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. I am a bit of an American history buff. In this book, DKG shows how Abraham Lincoln disregarded party politics and petty (and some not so petty) differences to invite to his cabinet the men he considered to have America’s interest at heart during a time of our greatest crisis. It can be done. It should always be done.


The Paperbag Princess by Robert N. Munsch. I have five grandchildren. If you know this book, I needn’t say more. If you don’t, it is a book about a princess who slays the dragon and rejects a prince who is too shallow. And yes, I read it to my grandson as well as to my granddaughters.

Any thesaurus. I am a writer. Enough said.

Any almanac. I love having all those facts handy in one place.

Any book of spiritual guidance. The book can follow the principles of your religion, my religion or no religion at all. It just needs provide sustenance for the soul.

Well, that’s it, folks. I have done the meme. Rather than tag any of our fellow bloggers, I invite you all to think of your own answers, post or not as you see fit. That’s all part of the fun!


Terrie

So What's Next?

Well, now that the contracts are signed and I am no longer afraid of jinxing things, I can announce that...

I have an agent! It almost makes up for the hives! (The latest theory: I could be allergic to garlic--how ghastly would that be? Did you know that virtually every packaged food has garlic in it? Any time a product says "spices," it means garlic. But that's a topic for another day.)

Anyway, I am the kind of person who sets a goal and works toward it, rarely considering what I will do once I achieve it. So for however long, I've been submitting to agents, going to conference, working and reworking my manuscripts. Now what? Oh, sure, I have to work on the next books, but what happens at this point? Since I figure I can't be that different from other people, who might not have considered the "what's next" aspect of all those endless submissions, I thought I'd post here a couple of things I've learned since I got "the call."

The book Jessica wanted is a cozy. That means it's the first of a series. Before she could submit to publishers, she wanted brief paragraphs on the premises of the next two books. Yikes! Luckily, I had some ideas for those and she said I don't have to stick to them too strictly once everything gets rolling.

My book is a cozy with a bead theme, so she also needed some "stuff." You know, like there are recipes in a culinary mystery. Those aren't too hard for me, since a great deal of my "day job" consists of explaining things to other beadmakers, customers, jewelry makers, etc, but it never occurred to me she'd need them up front, before she could submit to publishers.

And now that she's submitted the package? Well, we wait. Hmm...it seems I've been here before. I wasn't any good at waiting then, and I am no better now.

Describing the Unknown in Terms of the Known

NPR’s Brian McConnachie (All Things Considered) last week issued round seven of his Vocal Impressions challenge, asking listeners to describe famous voices in metaphoric language. The current challenge is to describe the voices of Johnny Cash, Ethel Merman, Willie Nelson, and Roy Orbison.

If you haven’t checked out responses to his previous challenges, take a look. Some favorites:

• Morgan Freeman: “A voice too tired to hurry and too powerful to slow down” — Andy Mullins
• Truman Capote: "A screen door spring" — Jennefer Wright
• Patsy Cline: "The voice of the moon courting a shy earth" — Justin Balsley
• Jack Nicholson: "The bottle that told Alice, 'Drink Me'" — Andrew Criss
• Cliff Edwards: "The day before Christmas" — Bridget Rasmussen
• Sean Connery: "He sounds like the man who knows the outcome of the race before it's been run." — Greg Quagliara
• Mae West: “The last spit curl of the 20s." —- Carl Kuschhaupt
• Luciano Pavaratti: "Humanity taking a victory lap" — Bradley Niblock
• Elvis Presley: “Sunrise in the backseat of your boyfriend's '57 Chevy” — Barbara Gatsche
• Phyllis Diller: “A '60s sofa shredded by cat claws” — Heather Kuhl
• Celine Dion: “The way you feel after a really good haircut” — J. Noel Gardiner

Metaphors are lame when not used with subtlety. Although it’s not particularly helpful for the Vocal Impressions Challenge, I like Owl Online Writing Lab’s discussion of Creative Ways to Use Metaphors:

Most books give rather boring examples of metaphors such as my father is a bear or the librarian was a beast. However, in your poetry (and fiction for that matter) you can do much more than say X is Y, like an algebraic formula. Definitely play with extended metaphors (see above) and experiment with some of the following, using metaphors...

• as verbs: The news that ignited his face snuffed out her smile.
• as adjectives and adverbs: Her carnivorous pencil carved up Susan's devotion.
• as prepositional phrases: The doctor inspected the rash with a vulture's eye.
• as appositives or modifiers: On the sidewalk was yesterday's paper, an ink-stained sponge.

- Lois

Writers Who Blog (About Life)

It's taken me ages to get this up! Sorry about that. But here is our list of favorite blogging authors. (Again, this list is limited to authors of fiction--there are simply too many out there otherwise!)

• Suzanne Adair's blog
  Suzanne writes historical mysteries and tells fabulous stories on her blog about her life.
  


• Cabbages and Kings
  Author(s) PJ Parrish's hilarious blog about life as a writer. (Check out the random question on the profile for a good laugh.)
  


• The Cozy Chicks
  Sometimes funny, sometimes serious, the "Chicks" are Kate Collins, Deb Baker,
  Maggie Sefton, JB Stanley, Heather Webber and Lorna Barret.


• The Education of a Pulp Writer
  The blog of David Cranmer


• Carol Ann Erhardt's blog
  Carol Ann writes romantic suspense.
  


• The Flightless Writer
  Dawn Rotangari's blog. Dawn is a New Zealand writer whose first book, Ripples on the Lake, is a paranormal mystery -- without fangs or fur.
  


• Good Girls Kill For Money
  Really, the name says it all. The good girls are: Tasha Alexander, Laura Bradford, Regina Harvey, Diana Killian, and Sara Rosett.
  


• Hey, There's a Dead Guy in the Living Room
  Winner of the unofficial "longest blog name" award. 8 mystery writers talk about publishing murder mysteries--with many a side trip.
  


• The Lipstick Chronicles
  The "Book Tarts," as they call themselves, are: Harley Jane Kozak, Nancy Martin, Michele Martinez, Sarah Strohmeyer, and Elaine Viets.
  


• The Murderati
  Nine mystery writers blog about mysteries, murder, and marketing
  


• Poe's Deadly Daughters
  The daughters are: Julia Buckley, Lonnie Cruse, Sandra Parshall, Darlene Ryan, Sharon Wildwind, and Elizabeth Zelvin. Wonderful stories about their experiences as writers and women.
  


• Razored Zen
  Blog of author Charles Gramlich, writer of horror and science fiction.

As always, if you have recommendations, just click the link to my profile and let me know!

Alaska! Bouchercon 2007

We just got back from Anchorage and a very successful Bouchercon 2007. It was fun. It was interesting. And it was full of contradictions. Here's the brief summary:

Under-attended -- boo

Very friendly folks -- yay

A little too rah-rah Alaska, rather than welcome world -- boo

The 1-day 26-glacier cruise was phenomenal -- yay

The book room failed to stock my book, LADYKILLER -- boo

I gave out dozens of bookmarks and many readers promised to order it -- yay

The hotel didn't have internet connection, even in the business center -- boo

We met nearly everyone there -- yay

Hotel bar small, understaffed and woefully inadequate -- boo

Drinks very cheap -- yay

Strange pink sauce on entrees at banquet -- boo

The band was great -- yay

Anyhow, it was Northern Exposure meets So You Think You Can Dance?

On balance, I'm glad I went, but am looking forward to Baltimore!